2010 Volvo XC60 T6 AWD: The Fog's Getting Thicker

December 13, 2010

I rolled my tired bones out of bed at 4:00 am to make down to our Cars and Coffee event on Saturday. There's an eerie stillness about Los Angeles that early in the morning. Adding to that feeling was a thick blanket of fog -- an uncommon occurrence, at least as far inland as I live. It got so thick, that I deemed it necessary to make use of out XC60's foglights. But what's this? Two foglights?

Rear foglights aren't required in the U.S., so those who don't regularly drive a European car may not be familiar with this. Basically, it's a bright taillamp that makes the car more conspicuous in poor visibility conditions. In most cases, it's a single light on the driver's side of the car. In the case of the XC60, it's a second lamp mounted in the bumper.

I first discovered rear foglights in an older Audi A4. The rear foglights were automatically engaged when the front fogs were turned on. In our Volvo, you can select them independently. I'm not convinced that rear foglights are all that necessary, though, since the standard taillights seem bright enough as they are. What do you think?

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